Boston PIC approves South End, Old Colony, and Brighton street projects at July meeting

BOSTON — July 13, 2023 — Boston's Public Improvement Commission approved six street and utility petitions Thursday, advancing projects in the South End, West Roxbury, Brighton, and Boston proper. The commission unanimously approved Related Beal's Appleton-Berkeley Properties LLC streetscape plans for the former Franklin Cummings Tech campus at 41 Berkeley Street, which anchors a project including 193 units of senior assisted living and memory care, 16 income-restricted housing units, and 35 homeownership units — though final paving materials are contingent on a review by a commissioner not available during the meeting. Eversource Energy won approval to relocate a utility pole within Soldiers Field Place in Brighton, conditioned on written no-objection from the Boston Fire Department. The commission continued the final phase of the Old Colony Housing redevelopment and a Lower Roxbury multistreet reconstruction to its July 27 hearing, after a detailed debate over whether Beacon Communities could secure lender approval for a pedestrian easement needed to achieve compliant five-foot sidewalks along Dorchester Street — with the project representative warning plainly, "the end point could be that we don't put the street trees in if we can't reach an agreement."